Oakland A’s owner John Fisher may have cast his lot with Las Vegas, but he’s still talking with the city of Oakland as well, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler:
Multiple sources inside and outside City Hall have been telling me that MLB and Oakland are still in regular contact…
Oakland City Council member Dan Kalb verified the ongoing contact.
“We don’t have any control over what happens in Nevada,” Kalb said Friday. “If the people in Nevada or the elected officials in Nevada want to take a mediocre deal that favors the A’s, that’s up to them. What we want to do is make sure the A’s know, the A’s ownership knows, is if for any reason they want to come back to Oakland and sit down and hammer out the last elements of a deal here, that we’re here, and we’ll talk, and we’ll do our best to get a deal this year. They know that.”
This isn’t all that surprising: Despite Mayor Sheng Thao’s don’t-let-the-door-hit-ya public statements and team execs’ public proclamations of their undying commitment to Vegas, nobody ever really closes the door on talks with anyone. (As Kalb told Ostler in unusually blunt terms: “Negotiations are often with people you don’t care for very much and who are not very friendly or good-faith negotiators. Doesn’t mean you stop doing it.”) Besides, Fisher still owns half of the Oakland Coliseum site, or an option on half of the coliseum site, or something, and the city owns the other half, so he needs to keep the lines of communications open to figure out what happens there, if nothing else.
But could the A’s actually end up remaining in Oakland, whether at a revived Howard Terminal stadium or somewhere else? Ostler provides a laundry list of hurdles that Fisher still needs to clear before he can move the team to Vegas, some trivial — submitting an application to MLB — some probably in the bag but maybe not — convincing three-quarters of other MLB owners that swapping Oakland for Vegas is a good deal for the league — and some still very much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ — coming up with around $1.1 billion in their own funding to go with $600 million in tax kickbacks, figuring out how to build the Enormodome on a tiny 9-acre site, and evading the public referendum that the Nevada teachers’ union is preparing to throw at him.
If any of those steps go awry, it’s certainly possible to imagine Fisher reapproaching Oakland; this, after all, is a guy who announced a “binding agreement” on one Las Vegas site only to switch to another site a month later, so anything is possible. Is it likely that the A’s will still be playing in Oakland next year, or five years from now? No. Have stranger things happened? Absolutely.
My Vegas neighbors, with no connections to the A’s bought “Sell” t shirts. This process has exposed vegas locals to the awfulness of John Fisher. If the referendum gets on the ballot, it’s probably passing. The Tropicana is at least 2 years from being torn down, and we’ve discussed the logistics of tiny parcel of land having a retractable roof.
I’d say 60-40 they stay in Oakland. Things in Vegas might change, making it a better deal. But as it sits now- I can’t imagine the big market owners will let Fisher switch markets, stay a revenue sharing bottom feeder, without some concessions. The Oakland deal just seems a lot closer to the finish line then Vegas.
The Oakland “deal” is NOT a lot closer to the finish line then Vegas. That’s a myth propped up by Oakland-only A’s fans and the Bay Area media. See Newballpark.org’s “Apples and Oranges” for details/the truth.
I would agree with this. It’s easy for an Oakland politician to say they’re trying to work something out. Actually signing the dotted line on a deal that will screw over the city will NOT go over well in Oakland and they know it. There are many reasons Fisher is even considering what is an objectively lousy project for him in LV.
How is it a myth when the hotel on the site in Vegas is at least 2 years away from being demolished?
Ballys, like the A’s, is a bottom feeder. There’s big questions about their Chicago project. If that doesn’t meet expectations- will they have the financing to redo the Tropicana?
The strip is adding 4,000 rooms with the Fountainbleu opening later this year, Tim Leiwicke and oak view have the funding in place for an NBA Arena/Resort complex. Will a crappy gaming company like Bally’s have the money needed for a huge build when the city already has enough hotel rooms?
I wouldn’t be shocked if the Chicago casino doesn’t bring in projected revenue, and Ballys looks to sell assets.
They have somewhere between $500-775m on offer from Oakland and a parcel well suited to a baseball stadium – it has one on it already. 155 acres and most of it available for redevelopment (subject to city approval… less the arena and soccer facilities they plan to build).
From Vegas? They’ve got 9 acres, tax credits (amounting to less than what is on offer in Oakland) and a whole lotta hoping. Oh, they’ve also got 2-3m less people to draw from.
Fisher and Kaval have utterly screwed the pooch on this one. Vegas may hand them a get out of jail free card at some point down the road, but they are losing allies every day with the way they are operating. Anyone really think getting the 75% owners vote will be simple given that the sole reason Fisher wants to move is so he can continue cashing MLB welfare checks forever?
They may well wind up in Vegas, but unless they are ok with four or five years playing in Summerlin, it won’t be any time soon. And man, are those 2pm eastern starts going to be something in an open air stadium in July and August. Of course it will still be well over 100 for the 8pm starts as well, so I guess it’s all relative.
Looks good on these two clowns.
Vegas most likely, but IF the A’s were to somehow remain in The Bay for the long term it will be “somewhere else” and not Oakland. As in the largest/wealthiest city in The Bay, 40 miles down the road from Oak/SF. Stay tuned, and never say never..
I would agree that SJ is the most logical place for the A’s to move to. If the league could somehow come up with a deal to pay off the Giants it could make everyone happy.
The territorial rights to the South Bay are worth a ton. If I own a valuable vacant lot I’m not giving it away just because I currently have no use for it. That was the original problem with the A’s attempts to move there 10 years ago or so.
“The territorial rights to the South Bay are worth a ton”
Don’t put it past Fabric Fauntleroy to reposes the 5 pieces of artwork “on loan” to the SFMOMA & flip them like some common Rick Harrison for cold, hard cash.
“Come up with a deal to pay off the Giants…” Grrrrr, ….those F*** A******* should give the rights back with an apology for gumming up the works since Oracle Park opened in 2000.
(sorry about the language, Neil)
.oO(“Fork Antennae”?)
Prediction: John Fisher will succumb to public pressure and soon and sell the A’s. The A’s will remain in the Bay Area, probably in Oakland.
He hasn’t given in so far, and he clearly has no interest in actually owning the Oakland A’s (and hasn’t since he/Wolff bought the team).
It’s possible – and I hope you are right – but unless he has no way “out” of Oakland and to the promised land of perpetual MLB welfare payments, I would be surprised if he sells.
He has already agreed to leave a larger market for a smaller one – and to do so for less money than he is being offered in the larger market. He has also agreed to fund a stadium that is going to cost nearly twice what the one he could have built in Oakland would have in a market that already has multiple professional sports franchises (when he had a portion of the bay area all to himself). It is also likely that his RSN/local media rights will be much lower in Vegas than they were in Oakland.
Excepting only the revenue sharing payments, MLB in Vegas is worse in every way possible than MLB in Oakland. That is not to say that Oakland is a great market (it isn’t, but it’s far from MLB’s worst), but despite his best efforts to alienate them he still has a fan base there.
I hope your prediction comes true… time will tell.
John, Fisher MUST think that whatever redevelopment plans he has for the Coliseum site will clear enough that this whole circus will be worth it. “North Alameda” or some such nonsense. Do you have any insight into the scuttlebutt surrounding that site?
It’s possible, Drew. I have no knowledge of his plans there beyond what he has (sort of) publicly stated.
The fly in that particular ointment is that he doesn’t actually own the land yet, and it is not clear if and when he does actually pay Alameda C for their “share” (so far he appears to have just placed a deposit on Alameda’s share) what he will be buying.
These questions have been posed before and there don’t appear to be any answers (at least I can’t find them).
a) Will he own a defined parcel of the coliseum site?
Is there (or will there be) a dividing line somewhere created on the parcel that will split off what Fisher will own from what Oakland owns?
b) Will he own 50% of the shares (real or notional) of a corporation (I would assume the JPA would have to be dissolved and an actual corporation formed in it’s place if a private entity takes Alamedas – or Oaklands – place as part owners) that holds full ownership of the 155 acre site? It is very difficult to see how a private corporation such as the one Fisher has created for this purpose could be slotted in to the existing JPA.
c) What stipulations might Oakland – as the regulatory body with authority over the development lands – make with respect to the coliseum site?
d) Does Alameda county still hold any discretionary power over the site (it is not clear to me whether the coliseum lands are entirely within the city of Oakland’s limits… I believe they are, but there could be something in the JPA agreement that gives Alameda and/or Oakland equal say over all or part of the parcel regardless where it is located) whether they own a portion of it or not?
Plenty of other questions come to mind, but even if Fisher does complete the purchase of “whatever” Alameda owns within the site, he may not be free to do as he likes with his shared property.
What do you think?
I think it’s a prime location for redevelopment for sure. I went to flight school at the airport so spent a bunch of time right there. Not to mention flying over the site 4 times a day for 3 years. I assume values in Alameda proper are through the roof at this point. And once gentrification hits The Flats I assume it’s only a matter of time until it’s basically Fremont. I just don’t see where the big money is for the first guy in the pool unless he has his eye on more than the Coliseum site. Maybe some kind of affordable housing grift I guess?
My wife suggested perhaps the Indian Casino/Hotel/venue grift might make some sense here.
The Oakland coliseum site is completely in the city of oakland
1901 Philadelphia A’s born.
1955 A’s move to KC.
1968 A’s move to Oakland.
1977 offseason: A’s for all intents and purposes move to Denver.
1978 A’s for all intents and purposes return to Oakland.
2023 A’s look to move to Vegas or will they?
What a history!